Haitians Among Us

Middle Americans' conflicting responses to Haitian arrivals

Small towns throughout America are experiencing mass immigration firsthand. Middle America was once a place where the nation’s old Anglo-Protestant core lived without much interference. Now their new neighbors are from all over the world, and Middle Americans aren’t thrilled. Haitians, in particular, are causing consternation among heartlanders.

This group, which in the past only popped in large numbers in major cities like Miami, are now moving all over. They’re one of the largest groups to arrive under Joe Biden’s open borders. Many of them came here legally thanks to Biden’s parole program, which offered hundreds of thousands of would-be illegals a legal pathway to the U.S. 

Now thousands of them are in places like Springfield, Ohio, a medium-sized city that was 75 percent white in 2010. It’s no longer that homogenous. The city, with a population of 58,000, has seen an estimated 20,000 Haitians arrive over the past few years. They’ve brought a bevy of problems, including crime, increased housing costs, reckless driving that leads to fatalities, and the alleged killing of house pets and protected geese. This has rankled many local residents and drawn conservative attention to the town. 

It has also prompted two different responses from Springfielders. One set of locals see the Haitians as a major threat to their community. The other set sees the problems associated with the Haitians, but concludes it’s wrong to care about them. A few locals are posting about how the real problem with Haitians killing Canadian Geese is the “racists” refusing to properly welcome the Caribbeans. A number of Redditors actually praised the Haitians for killing the annoying geese and looked forward to them opening up restaurants showing off their unique cuisine. Other locals are hoping to accommodate the new arrivals by offering instructions on what to do and not do in America in the hope the Haitians will listen. The overall message from these people is that the only solution is to realize these new neighbors are here to stay and Springfielders’ primary job is to welcome them.

This is the standard “decent fucking person” (DFP) reaction to the Great Replacement. To be a “decent fucking person,” as Redditors put it, one must not be bothered by migrants at all. Thinking this is a problem makes you the opposite of being a DFP; it makes you a racist. It’s how liberal educators and the media want ordinary people to respond to such an event. 

We all know that liberals will act this way when they see geese-killing Haitians. But this mindset also affects many non-lib middle Americans. They don’t want to be seen as racist. Like most Americans, they try to be friendly to everyone. They know that there’s something off about all these Haitians and other foreigners in their hometown, but they’re afraid of coming off as a not-so decent person. Many Middle Americans will fall back on the DFP framing just to get along with life. 

However, many others are grasping at another framework that allows them to argue against their own dispossession. 

A common DFP argument is that migrants are a huge boost to a town’s economy. Haitian defenders in Springfield are big fans of this rhetoric. A recent New York Times’ profile of the city’s battle over the newcomers interviewed businessmen and residents who were happy the Haitians were in their town. “They come to work every day. They don’t cause drama. They’re on time,” one business owner told the Times. One native-born worker claimed that her fellow Americans are just jealous of how hard these Haitians work.

This sentiment is shared in Alabama. Sylacauga’s city council (population 12,278) abruptly shut down its meeting last week after local residents protested the sudden arrival of Haitian migrants to the community. City councilors resorted to DFP framing to dismiss their concerns

“I want to welcome anyone to Sylacauga that wants to come to Sylacauga,” Council President Tiffany Nix, a black woman, said. “If you’re here stimulating our economy, thank you. That’s how I feel about it. If people aren’t breaking the law, they’re not causing any problems, I don’t...I don’t see what the issue is.”

Councilman Ashton Fowler utilized a religious appeal to defend the Haitians.

“The first time I saw them, they came in our church. They wanted to come to Sunday School and church with us. That’s the first time I knew they were in town, and then there was three, then six, then eight. The ones at church with me are great people. They wanted to come to church, haven’t asked for a thing, worship and go home.”

When none of these arguments worked, the city council simply shut down debate.

Other Alabama towns have witnessed a significant uptick in Haitians and other migrants. Residents in Albertville protested the bussing of migrants to their town, which prompted city leaders to condemn the “baseless accusations and hurtful rhetoric” against their neighbors. “We will not support or condone any narrative or discourse that seeks to marginalize individuals in our community based on their race or ethnicity,” Albertville’s leaders said in a joint statement. Once again, the real issue is “racism” rather than locals feeling like they’re getting replaced by strange outsiders.

This has worked in the past to get people to shut up about the problem–but it appears it no longer works. 

This is demonstrated by the comments from the ordinary Middle Americans who came to townhalls in Ohio and Alabama. These weren’t right-wing activists or extremely online anons. These were regular people protesting their dispossession. Here are two examples from the Times’ article on Springfield:

“Haitians are occupying our land,” declared one middle-aged woman, Glenda Bailey, warning that the immigrants would soon become the majority and run everyone else out of town. She said they had low IQs.

…

“Not one person asked anyone in this community how we felt about them coming in here and invading our city,” said one resident, Mike Powell.

An elderly woman brought up the fact that she has homeless Haitians living on her front lawn who can’t speak English and terrorize her. She noted that they are here on temporary protected status, but wondered why she, as a citizen, isn’t protected from them.

Citizens in Sylacauga argued against Haitian immigration because they come from a failed state and cannot be properly vetted. They don’t want their hometown to look like Port-au-Prince. 

Springfield has become a mainstream Republican issue, with J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, and other prominent politicians and commentators sharing memes about how Trump will protect pets from Haitian barbecues. It is wild to see the entire American Right unite against Haitian migration over reports that the Caribbeans may kill and eat your cat. This is a very different GOP from the days when Paul Ryan and others exhorted conservatives to embrace immigrants as a way to increase economic growth. Ordinary conservatives now see immigration as a threat to the country.

These responses show that the DFP framework is weakening among Americans. They know there’s something wrong with thousands of foreigners being plopped into your hometown without even a vote. They no longer care about being called racist–they just want their country back.